It is the time all of you have been waiting for: Here is a hands-on glimpse of the prototype water-cooled Xbox 360 from Cool IT. Cool IT is using a scaled down version of one of their water cooling systems designed for the PC. It uses three half-sized refrigerated chillers. It is actually integrated into the Microsoft thermal control system and cuts off all cooling options that the 360 has and allows the Cool IT system to take over. It is small, and they mentioned the final design will be more sleekly integrated into the 360 chassis. At a complete full gaming load the 360 runs at 39-41 degrees Celsius and while idle it will get down to 30 degrees. This is the initial outer picture and we will have more pictures of the specific internals later today.

A Summer 2006 consumer release date will be the target, but Cool IT reps said that they don't want to sell the unit as a do-it-yourself install, so the company will be establishing certified modders around the country who can install the units. Cool IT will also be dabbling into selling the 360 units pre-modded. There was no current discussion with any deals between Microsoft and Cool IT, but Microsoft representatives have made multiple trips to the Cool IT booth and Cool IT said, "We will be happy to work with any company that would help further our products and profits."